lib/PublicInbox/Import.pm     |  3 +++
 lib/PublicInbox/V2Writable.pm |  3 +++
 lib/PublicInbox/Watch.pm      | 31 +++++++++++++++++++++++++------

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/Import.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/Import.pm
index 700b40262e36d6eae460d12639106b6c2529062c..ee5ca2ea11b4f383e514ecdf117ac1dabe2c14c1 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/Import.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/Import.pm
@@ -461,6 +461,9 @@ 		close $fh or die "close $f: $!";
 	}
 }
 
+# true if locked and active
+sub active { !!$_[0]->{out} }
+
 sub done {
 	my ($self) = @_;
 	my $w = delete $self->{out} or return;
diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/V2Writable.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/V2Writable.pm
index f2288904638e98e147af30bc68a1678a5dcda7f7..553dd839f39a9a56227e8a092d55e791ca54b2e0 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/V2Writable.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/V2Writable.pm
@@ -655,6 +655,9 @@ # and read-only ops.  Order of data importance is: git > SQLite > Xapian
 # public
 sub barrier { checkpoint($_[0], 1) };
 
+# true if locked and active
+sub active { !!$_[0]->{im} }
+
 # public
 sub done {
 	my ($self) = @_;
diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/Watch.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/Watch.pm
index 5f78613961db1058506b8193c4ea7bd55c0522f3..0bb92d0a9055703233b7af5cafe53bdfa0232e2f 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/Watch.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/Watch.pm
@@ -134,14 +134,33 @@
 sub remove_eml_i { # each_inbox callback
 	my ($ibx, $arg) = @_;
 	my ($self, $eml, $loc) = @$arg;
+
 	eval {
-		my $im = _importer_for($self, $ibx);
+		# try to avoid taking a lock or unnecessary spawning
+		my $im = $self->{importers}->{"$ibx"};
+		my $scrubbed;
+		if ((!$im || !$im->active) && $ibx->over) {
+			if (content_exists($ibx, $eml)) {
+				# continue
+			} elsif (my $scrub = $ibx->filter($im)) {
+				$scrubbed = $scrub->scrub($eml, 1);
+				if ($scrubbed && $scrubbed != REJECT &&
+					  !content_exists($ibx, $scrubbed)) {
+					return;
+				}
+			} else {
+				return;
+			}
+		}
+
+		$im //= _importer_for($self, $ibx); # may spawn fast-import
 		$im->remove($eml, 'spam');
-		if (my $scrub = $ibx->filter($im)) {
-			my $scrubbed = $scrub->scrub($eml, 1);
-			if ($scrubbed && $scrubbed != REJECT) {
-				$im->remove($scrubbed, 'spam');
-			}
+		$scrubbed //= do {
+			my $scrub = $ibx->filter($im);
+			$scrub ? $scrub->scrub($eml, 1) : undef;
+		};
+		if ($scrubbed && $scrubbed != REJECT) {
+			$im->remove($scrubbed, 'spam');
 		}
 	};
 	if ($@) {